Volunteers gather signatures on a petition to enshrine the right to abortion (Anita Snow/AP)
Organisers of competing abortion measures in Nebraska say that they collected enough signatures to get on the November ballot.
Officials with Protect Our Rights, which seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, said they turned in 207,000 signatures to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office.
SBA Pro-Life America says 205,000 signatures have been submitted to enshrine Nebraska’s current 12-week ban into the state constitution.
The secretary of state’s office will go through the process of validating that each signature belongs to a registered voter in Nebraska over the next several weeks.
Petition initiatives seeking a constitutional amendment must collect enough signatures to equal 10% of registered voters in the state, or about 123,000.
Additionally, 5% of the signatures must come from 38 of the state’s 93 counties — a requirement adopted years ago to ensure rural voters have some say in the petition process.
Organisers of the competing efforts have accused each other of misleading voters about the scope of their petitions in an effort to gather as many signatures as possible.
Competing abortion measures could be on Nebraska’s ballot in November
